Dr Frankenstein – Part II

Well, the old heap that I got to restore got what might be called a massive update. From the beginning, it was chugging
along at a meager 730 Mhz, wich wasn’t really that bad when the computer was freshly bought. Now however, I have
more CPU power in my phone.. hows that for a change. It also spotted 3X sticks of SDRAM, each at 128Mb each and
well … it couldnt do much. You started up internet explorer (wich was the only browser installed, dont blame me)
and then you went to grab a cup of coffee, came back in time to see the window load.

I did some thinking and figured I had some spare parts laying around. I had Linda do some scrounging while I was
at work, told her what to look for and when I got home, the Dr went to work. Now, its still not a top of the line system
but it really isnt half bad to use. It sports a nice AMD XP 3000+ cpy chugging at 2.1 Ghz (more then double the speed)
and 1 Gb ram (Also more then double) and a new CPU fan, and a new PSU. On top of that, there was a fresh install
of Windows XP, aswell as assorted needed software. So, now its running like clockwork. Hope the old lady that
owns the system will be pleased. I know I am considering what I got to work with from the start.

Dr Frankenstein

The gentleman Dr. Frankenstein and I seem to have a few similarities, although he seems
to accomplish feats that are beyond my reach. Why? Well, lets say it this way. Sitting next
to me is a relic from a lost era of pentium 3 machines. This one ticking in at 730 mhz, and when
it came to me, it had a staggering 384 Mb RAM. If that is not a corpse, someone tell me what is.

Anyhow, now it has a newer PSU and it also has 512 Mb RAM, wich was the amount of SDRAM that
I currently had within a convenient reach, but a dragon reared its ugly head. The dragon being
the one with “too old to use certain things”

Ive scrapped or given away all my old PS2 keyboards, I use a nice, low profile Logitech keyboard
that is based of a nice little USB end, and it hasnt failed me yet. It will be found within XP, no problemo there
but when I want to do a complete, fresh install? Noooooo .. while in bootup, the USB isnt started on
this board, and there is no way to enable it in BIOS. Whoop-de-frigging-doo! So, here’s the plan.

This system is gonna be picked up tomorrow during the day by Lindas mother, she will then drive
the system to Lindas grandmother, who will plug it in, hopefully note a slight performance change
and, with the nice little addition to call me so I can help her with the reinstallation of the computer
over the phone. Luckily, I have also supplied an unattend file to make the installation unattended
wich means that the nice old lady wont have to do much except boot the system up, make some initial
pressings on the keyboard and then go have a few cups of coffee or go to the store or whatever.

Oh well .. all in a days work. I am a tech-support, on 24 hour call it seems, but hey, at least I am good
at what I do and take pride in it. Viva la Techs!

Sentimental scribblings

Well, we all have them I suppose. Those sentimental moments that creeps up on you
from time to time and pounce on you when you least suspect it, and I had one today.

I was, as usual, sitting at my computer doing nothing important when I started thinking
if my very first “real” PC. The first I bought for my own money was a shabby ole 386
with a whopping 200 Mb harddrive, 1 Mb graphics card from cirrus logic (E-ISA of course!)
and it even had a soundcard AND a CD ROM. It was operating at a whopping 33 Mhz and
frankly, I enjoyed that machine to the fullest. I could play Doom on it if i just lowered
the windows size just a tiny bit. I didn’t have windows on it because anything that I wanted
to do, I could do from MS-DOS with about as little hassle as from windows, and I didnt
need windows 3.1 to clutter up my harddrive.

You may think that 33 mhz is little, but keep in mind that the processor clock frequency has
increased very fast with the coming of the first pentium CPUs. For a while, there was a heaven
of hardware spewing out on the market and whenever you turned around, there was a new
processor out that had a slightly higher frequency and also, new types of RAM came.

The days when new hardware came, you where always enthusiastic, and to be frank, I still
get like a kid at christmas when I know I have new hardware to pick up. I can hardly wait
til I get to shred the wrapping and plug it in and see what the baby can do.

I fondly remember my first major upgrade. I bought a Pentium 166 (no, no MMX on that one) and it had
a mindboggling 64 megs of ram, and pieced with that, was a catchy OS with the catchphrase
“Where do you want to go today” Well. I soon learned that the catchphrase SHOULD have been
“You are not going anywhere today” seeing as bluescreens became a part of everyones day, but
despite that, suddenly I had a computer that could handle the new and Ultra Cool “Duke Nukem 3d” from 3D Realms.

The fun we had with that game at lan parties, hooking up our BNC network and terminating it and just
spewing ballistic projectiles at eachother to our hearts content and that was fine, until one day, I think
it was Marcus Agehall, or pherhaps Anders Lindahl who brought us a demo of what would soon be my
new and major addiction. Quake by ID software, the same company that had made sure I lost as much
sleep as possible while playing Doom. Oh my dog! That game was off the map!

Quake became a part of my everyday life, and I also measured my computer to better performance
using that game. I even bought my first Voodoo card and suddenly, even getting killed was wonderful!
And on top of that, the graphics was stunning and mindboggling.

Alas, nowadays people have become spoilt rotten for graphics. I am not sure if that is a good or bad thing,
but I still return to play quake 1 and 2 on occasion and I stil enjoy it.

My current addiction is one of those games with the great graphics, If you havent played the game
“Bioshock” yet, I urge you to do that. Here is a little teaser screenshot:

Now I am off for another game of Quake tho.

Take care